情境对共情的影响

共情指的是个体在与人交往的过程中共享并理解他人的情绪状态的倾向, 包括认知共情和情绪共情两种成分。现实生活中的共情总是发生在一定的具体情境中, 受到情境因素的影响。其中, 情境的公开性或私密性、意义性等均在不同程度上影响了共情的产生或共情反应的强烈程度。共情对象在特定情境中与共情主体之间的群际关系、人际关系等也是重要的情境因素, 共情主体对于和自己属于同一群体或拥有较亲密人际关系的他人更容易产生共情。情境对共情的影响通过自上而下和自下而上两种方式实现。有关情境对共情的影响研究虽然取得了一定的成果, 但仍然有进一步拓展的空间, 未来的研究需要在情境因素的内涵上进行深入挖掘, 从认知加工的角度对情境影响共情的机制做更为细致、微观地解析, 还可以从共情主体的视角明确个体差异如何调节了情境对共情的影响作用。

The effect of context on empathy

This review provides a brief introduction of the research about the impact of context on empathy. Empathy is defined as the propensity to “share and understand other’s feelings during interpersonal interaction”. It includes two components of cognitive empathy and emotional empathy. Empathy appears to be a very situational cognitive process as the context has an effect on empathy. The privacy and meaning of the specific context influence the occurance or intensity of empathy. Group membership and interpersonal relationship also influence the processing of empathy. The contextual factors trigger empathic responses through automatic and controlled processing. Although much progress has been made in the field of the contextual effects on empathy, more work could be done in the future. The connotation of contextual factors is worthy to be explored in the future. We could take the perspective of people who empathize with others to confirm how the contextual effect on empathy is moderated by individual differences. Additionally, we can try to explore the mechanism of contextual effects on empathy under the background of cognitive processing.